The invention relates to a domestic appliance filter, a domestic appliance with such a filter and a method for manufacturing such a filter.
Domestic appliances such as washing machines, tumble dryers, combined washer-dryers or dishwashers are generally known. The use of filters for cleaning a process medium in domestic appliances of this type is known. For instance a filter of this type is arranged in tumble dryers in a process air duct leading away from the drum housing. If laundry is dried in a drum within the drum housing, matter, in particular lint, is lead away from the laundry with the process air as the process medium and is carried along with the process air in the process air duct. To this end, the filter is used to filter such lint out of the process air so that the lint is unable to enter a condenser, a heating facility or a fan arranged downstream thereof. Filters of this type can typically be removed from outside the domestic appliance by way of an access and cleaned so as to remove lint adhering to the filter. Filters in a drainage outlet are known for instance in washing machines or dishwashers.
To ensure that the adhesive forces of the lint on the filter fabric of the filter are reduced, the filter fabric is advantageously provided with a hydrophobic coating. The lint filters usually used in tumble dryers consist of a plastic fabric, which is provided with a coating for the hydrophobic coating. At a temperature of approximately 160° C., the coating is fixed during a period of 1.5 minutes. This low temperature and the short fixing time are needed to prevent the plastic fabric from being damaged as a result of too significant a thermal effect since the plastic is also not durably resistant even at 160° C. The low temperature and short fixing time are disadvantageous in that the adhesive forces of foreign bodies on the filter fabric of the filter cannot be sufficiently reduced, thereby complicating the cleaning of the foreign bodies by means of a cleaning fluid.
US 2005/0252022 A1 describes an independent lint collector for collecting air particles, which includes an air inlet, in order to enable air particles to enter the lint collector, and a base which is disposed to increase the speed of the air particles and to limit the same as a result of a centrifugal force. The air inlet is connected to a dryer. The base can comprise a non-stick coating. The base can consist of aluminum. This lint collector is disadvantageous in that it takes up considerable storage space as a separate device. Furthermore, the lint collector only cleans the exhaust air from the dryer, in order also to be able to guide the exhaust air into an interior of a house. By contrast, cleaning of the process air in a dryer is not provided.
WO 2008/077394 A2 relates to a structured material web, in particular material web, for separating a fluid from solids with a multi-dimensional structuring, which comprises bulges or folds as well as structures arranged adjacent to one another and formed in each instance in a surface section enclosed by the bulges or folds, with each of the structures having an excellent location with a hole and the surface sections being formed in each other location of the structure at an incline toward the excellent location. The material web can be made from a meshed grid, a fabric or a textile. The material web can comprise a non-stick coating on its surface or a non-stick surface, in particular according to the Lotus effect. The material web can consist of a meshed grid or fabric and/or textile. The material web can consist of the following group of materials: metal, plastic, natural, carbon and glass fibers as well as cardboard and paper, a meshed grid, e.g. made of stainless steel or fabric. The material web can be used for a drum of a laundry treatment machine or also for a filter wall. The use of a lint filter in a process air circuit which can be cleaned with a liquid is not disclosed anywhere, neither is a tangible embodiment of a non-stick coating for this purpose. When using the material web, this is instead provided for the equal distribution or metering of fluid quantities in order to allow all liquid droplets, which could adhere to the material web and thus form fluid residues, to flow out.
EP 1 674 535 A1 relates to self-cleaning surfaces with improved mechanical stability and a method for the manufacture thereof. This aim is achieved in that self-cleaning, hydrophobically structured surfaces are manufactured, which have fixed mixtures of particles on their surface, the structure-specifying particles being selected from semi-metal or metal oxides, silicic acid and metallic powders and wax particles. Structured surfaces, which are structured by such a mixture of particles, are characterized by a considerably greater mechanical stability of the structure and are therefore particularly well suited to manufacturing self-cleaning surfaces which are exposed to greater mechanical stresses, like for instance the surfaces of tarpaulin, marquees, greenhouse elements, conservatories or HGV tarpaulins. The wax particles are nevertheless unsuited to use in lint filters since the wax particles would adulterate the comparatively fine meshes during application.
EP 0 825 230 A1 relates to an age-hardenable polymethyl silsesquioxane compound, which uses polymethyl silsesquioxane obtained from cost-effective precursors and provide a hard, scratch-resistant, highly corrosion-resistant, water-repellent and transparent hardened thin layer. The age-hardenable polymethyl silsesquioxane compound includes a polymethyl silsesquioxane with the general formula (CH3SiO3/2)n(CH3Si(OH)O2/2)m and a predetermined molecular mass, MM, of 380 to 2.000, with m and n being positive numbers, which provide the predetermined MM, with the condition that the value of m/(m+n) is lesser than/equal to 0.152/(MM×10−3)+0.10 and greater than/equal to 0.034/(MM×10−3) and 10 to 250 proportion of weight of colloidal silica. These thin layers have been applied to planar carriers made of glass, aluminum or steel with a layer thickness of 6 μm and indicate a contact angle relative to water of approximately 120°.
US 2008/0276656 A relates to a drum-type washer-dryer which comprises a water tank, a rotatable drum, which is provided so as to be rotatable in the water tank, a dehumidification heat exchanger for dehumidifying air released from the interior of the drum, a heating unit for heating the air dehumidified by the dehumidification heat exchanger and a fan for introducing the air in the drum into the dehumidification heat exchanger and for transporting the air heated by the heating unit into the drum. A filter is arranged in a downstream duct between the drum and the fan and on an upstream side of the air flow, which is generated in a drying process by the fan. The filter is arranged such that it is saturated by water, which is introduced into the water tank during the washing or rinsing process. In one embodiment, the washer-dryer also has a cleaning unit for generating a flow of water and as a result removing foreign bodies which have adhered to the filter unit. Aside from metal wires, synthetic resin wires and suchlike are conceivable as wires which form the filter, nevertheless metal wires are preferred since metal wires have smooth surfaces and do not attract lint, thread sections and suchlike. Fixing the crossings of wire meshes, e.g. by means of synthetic resin coating of a cellular woven metallic yarn, prevents problems occurring such as changing the opening size of meshes which are caused by foreign bodies getting caught between the crossing wires, by displacing the crossings or such like. A hydrophobic coating is not disclosed, since the metal wires are already regarded as adequately smooth.